Something There
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: While anonymously writing to each other, Sirius Black and Severus Snape find that they may have more in common than they thought. But what will happen when they find out who they've been writing to? NOT slash. Written for xxGrimxLullaby's birthday.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

Okay, I admit, I actually wrote this for xxGrimxLullaby's Anonymous Correspondent competition. But I wish her a happy belated birthday just the same. =)

**Something There**

"Who are you writing to?" Sirius asked, looking over Marlene's shoulder as she wrote.

"No one," she said quickly and covered the parchment with her hands. "Stop sneaking up on people."

"I wasn't sneaking. You just didn't hear me." He sat on the chair beside her in the common room. "So, really, who are you writing to?"

"It's none of your business."

"So it's not your parents then?" He grinned as she threw a crumpled piece of parchment at him.

"Not having your first fight already, are you?" James said, walking up to their table with his arm draped around Lily's shoulders. "Because you know that would mean five galleons to me. Right, mate?"

Sirius glared at him. "'Course we're not fighting."

"Another bet?" Lily said disapprovingly. 

"Just a small one. When Sirius told me that he and Marley were dating, I bet that they'd be fighting within a week."

"As opposed to the first day, like us?"

"Exactly."

Lily rolled her eyes and sat down on Marlene's other side. "So, what were you two ... talking about?"

"Marlene was just telling me who she was writing too."

"Oh, is it for that Muggle Studies project? Emma was just telling me about it," Lily said. Marlene glared at her.

"What project?" Sirius wondered.

Sighing, his girlfriend started to explain. "Professor de Sales is encouraging people to do things the muggle way this year. He's starting with interactions by making us get penfriends within school."

"Within school?"

"Yeah. A bunch of students wrote letters anonymously and everyone in the class had to pick one and write back to the person. We're supposed to continue writing to each other and keep our identities a secret until the end of the school year."

"Sounds cool," said James. "Is it just open to Muggle Studies students."

"No. There were lots of extra letters that didn't get answered. They're all up in the little chamber below the owlery."

"We should go up there. Take a look around. What do you say, Sirius?"

"Sure. I don't have anything better to do."

The chamber wasn't as tiny as Marlene had let on. Cubby holes covered two walls, each hole either black or purple, and all were numbered. A shelf under the large window held an abundance of quills, ink pots, parchment rolls and envelopes. Two large desks filled the rest of the room, enough space at each for four people to work together.

"The purple cubbies already have assigned writers. No one but those two people will be able to get in there. The black cubbies need replies though. Read through as many as you like, but you can only reply to one," Marlene told them before settling at one table to finish her letter.

Sirius searched through at least twenty letters before finding one that he found interesting rather than just plain whiny or overly depressing. Lily had long ago found the perfect one for her, and James had left after getting bored reading his fourth.

Letter one-twenty-nine read:

_I wonder what will get me first, death or Azkaban? Both sound like paradise compared to what awaits me outside the castle walls. Whether by killing that soulless creature that calls himself my father, or killing an innocent muggle under His power, I'm doomed. I've accepted it, I'm ready for it, but that does not mean I have to like it._

_I do not expect anyone to reply, so don't feel guilty for leaving my letter on the shelf._

_Sincerely, Starkey_

The letter was enough to send Sirius scrambling for quill and parchment. There was something in the way the person wrote ... so desperate. Sirius knew that desperation all too well. The strong desire to do better and be something more than what his parents wanted him to be. It was evident in the letter-writer's comment about his father that he had family issues. Sirius could definitely sympathize.

But there was more too it. The person talked about someone who would make him kill muggles. It could only mean one person, if that's what he was. Voldemort had ruined Sirius' life as well - marked his little brother just that summer - and the seventh year wanted nothing better than to mess up any plans of future recruiting.

He wrote, ignoring the surprised glances from Lily and Marlene as he worked quickly. When the letter was signed and sealed in an envelope, Sirius tossed it into the cubby marked one-twenty-nine. The hole turned purple instantly and the he found himself wearing a small, silver amulet in the shape of an owl.

Many floors below him, in the dungeons of the castle, Severus Snape sat on his bed in the empty dorm room, muttering over a Transfiguration essay when he suddenly sat bolt upright. Pulling on the chain around his neck, an amulet identical to Sirius' was lifted from beneath his shirt. He dangled the owl in front of his face for a few seconds, watching as it turned gold.

It took him exactly seventeen minutes to sprint up the eight flights of stairs and into the tiny letter chamber, but when he arrived the three Gryffindors were long gone.

After seeing that he was completely alone, Severus went to his cubby and pulled out the letter. The envelope was blank, and at first glance he thought the parchment inside was, too, because there wasn't enough writing on it to call it much more than a note.

_You have a choice. Don't give up hope._

**Author's Note:**

All right, I was going to make this a oneshot, but it would be an extremely long oneshot. Plus, I saw other people doing multi-chapters on the challenge thread, so I figured it was okay if I did too. That being said, I'm thinking no more than four total.

In case you were wondering about Severus' code name, Hesper Starkey is a witch who studied the use of phases of the moon in potion making, according to her chocolate frog card on JK's website. =)

Please review, it'll make my day.

-Lizzy


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

Thanks to all who favorited and reviewed and put this on alert! I hope I don't let you down. =]

_**Chapter Two **_

_**(a.k.a. I'm too tired for witty titles)**_

It was a full week before Sirius' owl changed color.

He was in the middle of one of Binns' lectures, head planted firmly on his desk, when he felt a tingling sensation on his chest. It wasn't enough to get him to wake up, but his eyes snapped open when he heard Binns' voice very close to his ear.

"Mr. Black, why is your necklace turning gold?"

Sirius jumped up and reached for the owl. Sure enough, it had turned gold.

Despite James' arguments, Sirius skipped lunch to go up to the chamber. There was only one other person in the room, a fourth year Hufflepuff girl. He didn't pay her any attention as he retrieved his letter.

_You don't know that. You don't know anything about me, or what I'm going through._

_And why do you care?_

Carefully going through what he wanted to say, Sirius sat down and grabbed a piece of parchment.

_You haven't given me a reason not to care._

_And I do know what you're going through. You hate your family and you want to find a way out. But you think your only choice is to join Him - and that's Voldemort, isn't it? Well, you're wrong. Going to him shouldn't be an option. I don't care how bad things get, there will always be another way._

_If you still don't believe me when I say I know what I'm talking about, let me tell you a little secret, Starkey-boy. I had the option of going to the dark side. My parents wanted me to join Voldemort. They demanded I go to him. When I refused, they kicked me out. What's worse is that my ..._

Sirius stopped writing and stared at the page. He'd already revealed a lot about himself to this Starkey person. In some ways, it was more than even James knew, as the fellow Marauder believed Sirius had left home of his own free will. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about how Regulus had joined Voldemort's ranks, and no doubt reveal who he really was.

_What's worse is that my friend has joined him. We were the best of friends for years, but he didn't have the strength to say no to his parents._

_If you're a seventh year, then you shouldn't be worried. You're of age. If it's your parents who are forcing you into this lifestyle, you can say no and leave. Yes, it'll be hard, but it's not going to destroy you. If you're younger, then stall them. Give them any excuse they'll believe to wait until you can legally leave._

_And if your parents aren't pressuring you, then I can't imagine why you'd consider this. He's a monster. He doesn't care about anyone, not even his followers. You'll be nothing but a house-elf to him. Disposable. People don't stop being Death Eaters, Starkey. You can't come back from the things he'll make you do. And you can't change your mind once you've said yes._

_Think about it._

_Call me Hamish._

:-:

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Severus muttered to himself as he read the letter again. This Hamish kid had a lot of nerve telling him he had no good reason to consider joining the Dark Lord. He didn't know the circumstance, didn't understand that it really was the only way...

Severus crumpled the letter and threw it into a waste paper basket, where it immediately started burning. Leaning back in the chair he ran his hands through his greasy black hair and sighed.

If he was being honest with himself, he knew Hamish was right. There wasn't any future in becoming a Death Eater, but Severus didn't have much of a future anyway. At least the Dark Lord could offer him protection.

As much as he tried to hide it, Severus knew there were several people who had found out about his parentage. The professors all knew, for sure. Lucius, too. And Lucius was already one of the Dark Lord's most trusted men. He was a great recruiter, having brought three men in Severus' year to You-Know-Who for marking. Now Mulciber and Avery were pushing for Sev to join them.

_What would I do? If I didn't go to Him, I mean. I'm not Pure, nor do I fear death._

_My father is horrid, yes. I would love nothing more than to get rid of him forever. But I cannot leave my mother with him. She is not perfect, but she is all I have._

_The thing I do best is invent spells. I'm exceptional in the dark arts. I suppose you could call it my passion. The one thing that keeps me going. If I had my way, I would become Professor of the dark arts, but that can't happen for many years._

_What about you? Was it really worth it to say no. You lost your family, now your friend. That can't have been easy. Don't you regret it?_

_-Starkey_

:-:

_Don't you have anyone else? Family? Good friends? There's got to be someone who you care about other than your mum. Someone who cares about you enough to let you and your mum stay with them a while, until you can afford your own place. You shouldn't have to stay with your dad if he treats you bad, not even for your mum._

_It's great that you know what you want to do with your life. And being the Defense professor is better than a lot of other jobs you could take up with your skills, but would it be such a bad thing to have a back-up plan? Just something to focus on until you're eligible for the position._

_Take me for an example. I'm going to be an auror. As soon as I leave school I'm starting training, and I plan to do all I can to fight in this war. But, to earn some money in the meantime, I'll be taking up a job at the Magical Menagerie._

_Honestly, I can't say I regret anything in my life. I made my choices, my friend made his. And while I wish things had turned out differently, I know this is how it was meant to be. Destiny, if you will. Just like you, my parents weren't nice to me much either. I had a great uncle though. Still talk to him, but it got him estranged from the family as well._

_See, you're lucky you're not pure. Real, old, proud families are terrible. I was lucky, too, because most people who grow up in those families aren't able to get out. They're force-fed a load of crap about blood purity from a young age and are made to believe they're as good as royalty. By the time they start school, their heads are too big to be filled with the truth about muggle-borns. That's what happened to a lot of the Slytherins in our years._

_I'm not saying all of the snakes are pure, but the majority are. Black, Malfoy, Avery, Goyle... I know them all. They're all gits. Probably all got the mark now, too, because they can't see past Voldemort's lies. _

_-Hamish_

:-:

_No, there's no one. My mother's family disowned her when she married my father, a muggle. All of my friends have gotten the mark now, so if I weren't to join them, I wouldn't feel safe there. Honestly, I'm not sure I could really call them friends anyhow._

_You asked if there was anyone who cared about me, and the truth is that I don't think so. My mother can be affectionate, yes, but I drove away the only person who truly ever cared about me years ago. I am not popular here at school. Those in my house will speak to me. Nearly everyone makes fun of me for my appearance, or my passion for the dark arts._

_Do you have trouble with people? Do they make fun of you for being an outcast in your family?_

_I've thought of getting a job to keep me going, but there are few places that will need my expertise in the dark arts. I suppose I could do something with my potion talent, though. Perhaps a job at an apothecary._

_I have never thought of myself as lucky before. I can see now why you would think that. I have always been curious of how people would treat me if I was pure. Not many know my true heritage, but it comes up sometimes when they realize that my surname is not familiar. _

_-Starkey_

:-:

_That's too bad. I mean, I've got friends. Really good friends. When my parents kicked me out, I had to stay with one of them. Their parents treated me like a second son. It was ... different, than what I'm used to. Still, these friends understand me and what I've been through. I can't imagine what it would be like without them._

_Now, about that friend of yours, who you drove away: why did you? I mean, if this person was so good to you, and if they liked you so much, what could you have done to make them stop talking to you? And why don't you try to fix things? It sounds like you really regret what you did. I think this person would be able to tell, too, if you talked to them_

_I haven't been teased since I was a kid. I suppose you could say I'm on the other end of the jokes. I'm not proud of the teasing, but it's just second-nature now. There's this one guy in particular, he always get on my nerves and it always ends in some big fight. _

_The best advice I can give you, mate, is don't let those gits get you down. I know it's kind of silly for me to say so, but most people who tease are jealous. Think of what you've got going for you; dark arts and potions knowledge. They're two of the hardest classes here. Those kids are probably mad because they're not as bright as you, so they're picking on your looks. Just ignore them. In the end, you'll be the one with the successful career, and they'll be the ones held back a year._

_Speaking of potions, I don't suppose you'd be able to help me with something, could you? That bloody essay Slughorn set on Friday about the twenty-six uses of shrivelfigs is driving me mad._

_-Hamish_

**Author's Note:**

Sorry this is so late. I know I promised some of you that I'd get this chapter up on Friday - and I had it done by then - but when I read it over, I thought it was too small. I've added to it, and I think it looks (and sounds) better now.

I think I'm almost completely set on four chapters now. I know some of you want more, but I just don't have the time. Depending on how much I ramble in the next chapter, I may actually be able to fit everything into one last chapter.

That being said, how does everyone think this is going to end? =)

-Lizzy


End file.
